In the Aviva Premiership play-offs the form book goes out the window

People seem to have us down as big underdogs against Saracens at Vicarage Road on Sunday. Maybe that’s right. It’s on their patch and they’re in form. But there’s always a chance for us.

I think what we’ve learned from our defeat at Saracens last month is how important it is to match them physically. If you match up physically then you can beat them at what they do.

They’re very clean in their own half, they exit very well and their kicking game is good. If you can match up to them in the kicking game then you can end up putting the squeeze on them a bit and playing in the right areas.

A few weeks back, we didn’t get out of our own half very well which gave them an opportunity to dictate and play their game against us.

We were so disappointed last time that we didn’t really impose ourselves on the game, throughout the match we didn’t do the things that we like to do and that we’re good at.

But we have beaten them at Kingsholm a couple of times and must take a bit of self belief out of that. If we come off the pitch having thrown everything at them and it’s not quite good enough then you can do no more.

James Simpson-Daniel plays wing for Gloucester Rugby in the Aviva Premiership and has been capped 10 times by England.